Amid the run-up to iPhone X preorders Friday, Best Buy showed love for Samsung Galaxy smartphones in a Verizon Wireless promotion offering up to $250 off and in a $200 discount through AT&T Wireless. Offers are good with purchase and activation of the Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ devices, it said. Savings are deducted from the total price of the device and reflected in reduced monthly payments over the life of the device, Best Buy said.
Congress should consider whether to apply political advertising disclosure rules to online platforms, lawmakers said at a Tuesday House Oversight IT Subcommittee hearing. Chairman Will Hurd, R-Texas, said there’s a “level of urgency,” and the panel hopes to sort out a legislative response. Twitter blogged Tuesday it plans ad transparency measures that "will offer everyone visibility into who is advertising" and allow users to share feedback. A "good first step," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., tweeted. At the House hearing, broadcast, news media and campaign experts testifying as expected (see 1710230061) differed on benefits of legislation, agreeing more transparency in online political ad buys is a worthy goal. Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Randall Rothenberg, who supports industry's self-regulatory approach, said it's difficult to always know the identity of purchasers in high-volume online engagements. Broadcast attorney Jack Goodman said stations find disclosure requirements not a "very significant" burden, responding to Hurd's question about how difficult applying existing media and broadcast rules would be for online platforms. Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., expressed confidence lawmakers can strike a balance between protecting First Amendment rights and the need to increase transparency in online ads. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., said an inquiry is "long overdue." Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., questioned News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern about who should bear the responsibility of determining the difference between “fake and real news.” Chavern supported efforts to increase the accountability on news posted online. The “best thing any platform can do is be clear where the news source is coming from,” he said. On sorting out the identity of online political ads, Chavern told lawmakers quizzing him on the issue that “every company should know who is doing business with them.” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., supported rules to prevent foreign influence in U.S. elections.
Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, supports the Honest Ads Act introduced Thursday (see 1710190054). The FEC, which reopened a proceeding on ad disclaimers, wants input on how to improve transparency of political advertising, Weintraub said in a statement: HR-4077, will "significantly strengthen the law and empower Americans by better illuminating how campaigns are being waged on the internet."
AT&T should modify or end some claims it makes in advertising its fiber-to-the-home AT&T Fiber product, the National Advertising Division said Thursday, noting AT&T plans to appeal the finding to the National Advertising Review Board. NAD said the AT&T claims were challenged by Charter Communications, which also will appeal two of its findings. The companies didn't comment.
The House Oversight and Government Reform IT Subcommittee plans a Tuesday hearing on regulations and laws on political advertising disclosures and disclaimers in traditional and new media, confirmed a committee spokeswoman. She said witnesses scheduled to testify include Interactive Advertising Bureau President Randall Rothenberg; attorney Jack Goodman, a former NAB general counsel; News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern; and Center for Competitive Politics Legal Director Allen Dickerson. The 2 p.m. hearing is will be held in 2157 Rayburn.
Housewares retailer Bed Bath & Beyond advertised a half-off clearance sale on the Amazon Echo Wednesday, while supplies last. The original Echo, to be replaced by a newer model this month, is selling for $89.99 in what Bed Bath & Beyond called a manufacturer's sales event. "The manufacturer does not allow coupons on this item," said the fine print.
Additional funding and more resources for stronger enforcement of election laws that restrict foreign entities from interfering in U.S. elections is the "best first step" for congressional action rather than new regulations, blogged Electronic Frontier Foundation Executive Director Cindy Cohn Tuesday. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., may introduce legislation as early as this week (see 1709250058) that would regulate online political ads. Cohn said applying traditional FCC and Federal Election Commission campaign finance rules for broadcast media -- which the proposed legislation largely does -- may not translate well for online platforms: Facebook, Google, Twitter and Reddit can handle requirements like reporting major ad buys, but such rules may burden smaller online platforms, websites and blogs. "Extending the TV and radio election rules to small speakers and free and low-cost Internet speech will discourage these smaller entities from allowing or engaging in political expression at all," said Cohn. Proposed rules also could require people to identify themselves, harming anonymous political speech and infringing Americans' rights to engage in public debate, she said. Internet companies can prevent foreign election interference without new rules by tracking and shutting down the malicious use of bots to spread fake news; being more transparent in how they choose ads for users (see 1710020056); and allowing independent auditors to analyze data that shows how fake stories, hoaxes and other misinformation were disseminated and their potential influence.
Klipsch is teaming with Fox Home Entertainment to promote the release of War for the Planet of the Apes, which debuts Tuesday on Blu-ray and Oct. 24 on Ultra HD Blu-ray, the companies said in a Thursday announcement. The effort includes a sweepstakes promotion with a $3,200 grand prize package, they said. U.S. consumers who enter through Nov. 30 can win a Klipsch Reference Premiere HD Wireless 5.1 system, plus the War for the Planet of the Apes “Blu-ray prize pack,” featuring a hat, travel bag and T-shirt, they said.
Digital advertising industry actions cut ad revenue for piracy sites at least 48 percent, said a Trustworthy Accountability Group news release on a study released Thursday. “We have not won the war against ad-supported piracy, but the battle is joined, and we are making good progress,” said TAG CEO Mike Zaneis. TAG commissioned Ernst & Young to do the study, which analyzed 672 websites that accounted for about 90 percent of pirated media content activity July 2016-17. Without industry's actions, piracy sites would have potentially earned up to $213 million annually from digital ads, the study said. Such sites made only an estimated $111 million, it said. Initiatives, it added, included "appropriate language in insertion orders, use of ad verification vendors, and use of lists to block undesirable sites." TAG was formed by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers and Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Google's decision to end its "First Click Free" policy, which allowed users to get access to three free articles per day via search and Google News without subscribing to news publishers, was praised by News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson. "If the change is properly introduced, the impact will be profoundly positive for journalists everywhere and for the cause of informed societies," Thomson said. He said it will help fight fake news. Google Vice President-News Richard Gingras blogged Monday that a model of "Flexible Sampling" will replace First Click Free, giving publishers the option to determine how much free content, if any, they provide. From its own research and experimenting with The New York Times and Financial Times, Gingras said providing monthly rather than daily free content is a better approach, such as 10 articles per month. He said the company also is collaborating with publishers and is trying to simplify the purchase process to give users an easier way to subscribe to publishers' news.